Okan, Brixton Village

What
Small but sweet Japanese street food restaurant in Brixton Village serving okonomiyaki with a wide variety of toppings along with a wide selection of Japanese home cooking dishes.

The experience
It has been a couple of years since I ate at Okan in Brixton Village, but I found an old photo and realised that I never did a post and I really feel I should considering the amount of times I have recommended this restaurant to people.

It’s no surprise that nearly every time I have visited Brixton Village I opted for a Franco Manca. But on this particular visit I was with someone who had a huge love for Japanese food. I can’t remember fully but I’m sure I wasn’t exactly thrilled about skipping pizza for an omlette.

Okonamiyake is the most popular street food from Osaka and translates to ‘as you like it’. It is a savoury pancake with a cabbage and batter base and finished with a special brown sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, green seaweed flakes and bonito shavings. I chose the pork pancake with kimchi, a traditional Korean dish of fermented vegetables.

To start we shared the onasu, a small dish of delicious miso aubergine and we ate it as we watched our pancakes being made in front of us and enjoyed the delicious wafts of fresh cooking that drifted over to our table.

I quickly ate my pizza obsessed words when the pancake arrived and seriously considered placing it at the top of my list of favourite street foods. The wide range of ingredients give the pancake a little bit of everything – crunchy and soft with sweet, salty, umami goodness.

There are lots of Japanese restaurants in London, but most are known for the sushi offering. I hope that more restaurants open like Okan, as I could really eat this kind of food every day.

CostSmall dishes from £2.20, okonomiyaki and yaki soba from £6.50. Japanese teas £2.50 and a range of soft drinks available.